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2.18.2012

Chocolate Chip Treasure Cookies

Sometimes, we found ourselves in a quandary. School has been eating up our lives and free time, leaving us very little to bake things and shoot them in pretty natural lighting.

But your blog is demanding a new post.

Finally, you whip a batch of banana bread, because you've done that before. You're confident. You stick it in the oven and let it bake itself pretty while you get some homework done. No biggie.

The timer beeps, you check the bread. You jiggle the oven rack, press lightly on the top, and stick a toothpick in the middle. You're satisfied, you stick it on a cooling rack. It won't take long, and you've still got two hours of daylight left! Go you!

Awesome story, right? But there's a problem with this...why are these photos of wonderful, coconut-y super-chewy cookies, and not banana bread?

I'll tell you.

The banana bread started to sink in the middle. We all know what that means...yep. The middle was completely, and totally raw. Is this a huge deal? Um, yes. We had only two eggs left in the fridge. Those two eggs went in the banana bread. I was egg-less, and I needed a post. I was frustrated, because something flopped. Again.

How can you screw up banana bread?

Baking has its periods of suckiness. Most of the time you're really on a roll. Then comes that icky, humbling season where it seems like everything goes wrong. Be it a weekend, month, or just a couple of days. It happens.

In exasperation, I re-discovered this recipe. Here, my friends, is one darned good cookie. Out of eggs? Out of sugar? Have some coconut and sweetened condensed milk that's been sitting around for ages?

You're saved.

These are super-duper-uper easy, they came together in an hour and cool rather fast. Also, these are wonderfully chewy. Not a soft sort of chewy, but just...chewy. A base mostly consisting of graham cracker crumbs binds with coconut and chocolate chips with the help of some sweetly sticky condensed milk. Lovely beautiful gorgeous.

Sometimes it's nice to do a variation on a classic, and I'm all for it with these. I do, however, have a favorite basic chocolate chip cookie, which I will share very soon.

Banana bread...this isn't over.

Chocolate Chip Treasure CookiesYield: about 3 dozen

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

½ cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together graham cracker crumbs, flour, and baking powder. In a large bowl, beat sweetened condensed milk and butter until smooth. Add graham cracker mixture and mix until combined. Stir in coconut, chocolate chips, and walnuts (if using). Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes on middle and/or top racks, or until lightly browned. Let cool for about five minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.